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Nov 20, 2016

An Amazon International bestselling author,
I “met” Judy Penz Sheluk through Sisters in Crime – Guppy Branch, an anagram of
sorts for “the great unpublished,” although after many years in existence,
several members are now published authors who have elected to stay in the Guppy
fold to mentor and/or share their publishing experience with others. Judy is
one of this group; a member since 2013, her debut novel, The Hanged Man’s Noose, was published in July 2015. Skeletons in the Attic was published in
August 2015. Her short crime fiction is included in several anthologies, most
recently, The Whole She-Bang 3, a
blind-judged collection published by the Toronto branch of Sisters in Crime.Judy lives in Alliston, Ontario, a small
town about 90 minutes northwest of Toronto, Canada, with her husband, Mike, and
their 1-year-old Golden Retriever, Gibbs.

I hope you enjoy my interview with her:

Me:
Where do you get your ideas?

Judy:
Life! The basic premise behind The Hanged Man’s Noose is this: a greedy real estate developer
comes to a small town with plans to build a mega-box store on the town’s
historic Main Street, thereby threatening the livelihoods of the independent
shop owners. The town I was living in at the time I wrote it was going through
similar development, to much outrage. I merely took that premise and thought,
“What if someone was willing to kill to stop it?”

The basic premise behind Skeletons in the Attic is this: a
thirty-six year old woman, Callie Barnstable, inherits a house from her father,
who died in an “unfortunate occupational accident.” Not only was Callie unaware
of the house, she was completely unprepared for the condition of inheritance:
move into the house and find out who murdered her mother thirty years before.
That idea came to me while I was waiting in my lawyer’s office to revise my
will. He’d been delayed in court, and I got to wondering, “What if I was here
to inherit? What if…”

My husband likes to joke that he sleeps
with his eyes open.

Me:
Why do you write mysteries?

Judy: I’ve loved the mystery genre since my first Nancy Drew book. In my
teens, I discovered (and devoured) every Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh book.
By my mid-twenties, I’d read every Dick Francis, Ed McBain and John D.
MacDonald. Today, I’m a huge fan of Wendy James, Tana French, Sue Grafton,
Louise Penny, John Sandford, Sara J. Henry, and Michael Connelly. People often
ask me if reading in the genre I write can cause problems for me. The reverse
is true. Reading is the best teacher. Before I started writing short stories,
for example, I read several crime fiction anthologies.

Me: How difficult was it to find a publisher?

Judy: I naively thought it would be easy. I’d been a freelance writer and
editor since 2003, and had developed a decent reputation. I also understood the
business. But it took about two years to find a publisher for Noose. For
Skeletons, it took about two days…once you’ve had some success, it does get
easier. I purposely have two publishers (with a sequel due to each for 2017)
because they are two different series, and I didn’t want to put all my books in
one publisher’s basket. There have been so many changes in the publishing
world, and they continue to come. If readers are interested, my website,
www.judypenzsheluk.com, has a series titled “My Publishing Journey.” Start with
the first post (select from the Archives), “The First Cut is the Deepest,” and
go from there. I’m very honest about my journey, the highs, the lows, and
everything in between.

Me: Do your books have helpful hints (recipes, book club notes) at the
back?

Judy: No recipes. I like to say my books are amateur sleuth with an edge.
There’s the requisite small town and amateur sleuth, but there’s no cats,
crafts, or cookie recipes. That said, on the cover of Noose, there’s a
“Treasontini,” which is signature drink of The Hanged Man’s Noose (a pub on
Main Street). Here’s the recipe:

Gibbs at our cottage on Lake Superior (northern Ontario)

How
to Make a Treasontini

Ingredients:

2 oz. Blueberry Vodka

2 oz. Triple Sec

2 oz. Blueberry Juice

1 dash Club Soda

Fresh or Frozen Blueberries

Ice Cubes

Preparation: Combine blueberry vodka,
triple sec and blueberry juice in a cocktail shaker half-filled with ice cubes.
Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass. Top with club soda, garnish with
blueberries, and serve.

OMG--I have got to try a Treasontini! If they are anything like sour apple martinis then I'm in trouble!Looking forward to reading your books Judy. AJ, thank you for introducing me to Judy's work!Now...off to find blueberry vodka!D

Thanks Janni. My books aren't as cozy as some (no cats, crafts or cookie recipes). I like to call them amateur sleuth with an edge!

Dee, the treasontini is really good. A couple of days ago, I was invited to a local book club. They read Noose and had made up a pitcher of them A bestseller!

Hi Nikki, our cottage is actually on Lake Superior (though Toronto is on Lake Ontario). We are a province of many lakes (5 great lakes and a zillion small lakes and cottage areas). I love being near water.

HI Eleni. Thank you on the cover. It was designed by Ryan Doane. I gave him the key elements -- locket, tarot cards, attic -- and he was brilliant. Those particular tarot cards are specifically mentioned in the book.